The drawing below gives you my opinion of those who choose to remain passive in a world filled with evil:

Have you placed your "Head in the Sand"?

But you say, "I have my excuse!" Jesus gave us a parable about many of the excuses that people give:

"...A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper." (Luke 14:16-24)

Jesus told this story to illustrate what you probably already know deep down within you: that all of your excuses are really just "lame excuses" and are not really valid at all.

The Excuses People Make

(1) "Well, I have other things to do."

I am sure that you do have other things to do. Those who were invited to the dinner in Jesus' parable also had other things to do as well. Nevertheless, none of the excuses people gave in this parable were actually valid excuses. Those who were invited to this dinner could have come if they had really wanted to come. They only needed to work out their schedules so that they could come. The problem was that they really did not want to come, and so "made excuse" for not coming to this dinner.

(2) "I fear what people will think about me or do to me."

This is called "fear of Man". The Bible says:

"The fear of man bringeth a snare..." (Prov. 29:25)

"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." (Rev. 21:8)

Please note that the "fearful" were listed first, (before murderers and idolaters), among those who will one day end up in Hell. In fact, fearfulness is probably the main reason that so many people will end up in Hell rather than going to Heaven when they die. They are just too scared of what might happen to them if they were to trust Jesus. Because of their fearfulness, they refuse to trust Jesus to save them from their sins. They will therefore spend all Eternity in Hell as a direct result of this "fear of man" which they have. Nevertheless, ending up in Hell is far worse than anything such fearful people might have feared would happen to them. As the old saying goes, "out of the frying pan, into the fire".

(3) "I don't want to be too negative."

This last excuse is illustrated by this last set of pictures below. If this is your excuse, then you think that hiding from evil, (i.e. "keeping a positive thought"), will somehow make evil go away. This is what an ostrich thinks when it places its head in the sand. The ostrich though, is wrong to think this. Hiding from evil and pretending that it is not there will never make evil go away.

Hear No EvilSee No EvilSpeak No Evil

Does this last excuse describe you? Perhaps you have another excuse for not opposing evil that I have not mentioned. Nevertheless, opposing evil does not imply either violence or having rebellion against authority. Anarchists often rebel against authority but such rebellion is wrong. The Bible says:

"For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." (I Sam. 15:23)

Don't rebel! On the other hand, don't put your "head in the sand" either. The Bible says:

"Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." (James 4:14)

Your life is short. Eternity is very, very long. What you do now with your life, and especially with Jesus, does indeed matter - it matters for all Eternity. Therefore, do not put your head in the sand. Instead, make a difference!

By the way, I bought the bumper sticker seen at the top of this page in Washington D.C. from a vendor located between the Vietnam Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. This bumper sticker can also be ordered directly over the Internet as well.

This slogan itself I believe was based on a quote by Edmund Burke, who was an 18th-century Scottish philosopher and a British parliamentarian. The original quote went something like, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing".